Scottish Catholic Observer

Food has become ‘the most deadly weapon of war’ in Syria, according to a leading Catholic charity’s Middle East projects coordinator, who says both government and rebel forces are blocking humanitarian aid to force entire communities on the brink of starvation to submit to their rule.

Fr Andrzej Halemba, from Aid to the Church in Need, says that many groups are preventing food aid from getting through in an attempt to weaken the resistance of opposition groups.

Fr Halemba, who is in constant communication with Church leaders in Syria and who visited the country three times last year, said the crisis was putting extra pressure on ACN and other organisations to increase emergency help to areas open to aid.

Such regions have become a magnet for people fleeing aid-blockaded areas.

“Forces on both sides – Government and rebels alike – are preventing humanitarian aid from getting through in an attempt to subdue the people,” Fr Halemba said.

He added that rebels had taken humanitarian aid and sold it to the highest bidder to generate funds.

Referring to Madaya, the town north-east of Damascus where people have reportedly starved to death, he said: ‘There are quite a few places like Madaya where people are in desperate need but where help is not getting through.

Amid reports that up to 4 million people in Syria are living in areas cut off from aid, Fr Halemba cited statistics showing that, since the violence began nearly five years ago, 280,000 people had been killed in conflict but that 350,000 had died from lack of medicine and other essential supplies.

Fr Halemba said ACN was building up emergency aid programmes in centres such as the capital, Damascus, which is receiving thousands of people fleeing Madaya.

Since March 2011 when the conflict began, ACN has provided £7.9 million in aid for Christians and others in the country.

To donate to Aid to the Church in Need visit www.acnuk.org

PIC: A protester against the Syrian Civil War in America.